PART TWO DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION CHAPTER I. THE RESURRECTION OF THE INWARD MAN. Christ the First to Rise. Christ was the first to rise. "In Adam all die." (I Cor. 15:22.) "I am the resurrection and the life." (John 11:25.) "The invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse." (Romans 1: 20.) How Christ's second coming and the sounding of the last trumpet affected those who lived under the old and shadowy dispensation, we know not further than declared by David. (Ps. 17:15.) Paul says, "Behold I tell you a mystery." (I Cor. 15:51, I Thess. 4:16.) Yet it is a mystery still, for he has not made it clear enough to be easily understood. Even Paul himself, when "caught up to the third heaven," did not know whether he was in the body or out of it. (II Cor. 12.) So we leave the transactions of that great and "notable day" as we have already said, with Him who numbered the stars. Saint John says, "That there shall be delay no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to His servants, the prophets." (Rev. 10:6, 7.) We know that the scriptures teach "that Christ should suffer and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead" (Acts 26:23 a. v.) "the first born among many brethren." (Rom. 8:29.) "The first fruits of them that slept" (Cor. 15:20), "the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." (Col. I: 18.) Twice Born and Once Risen Christ. Christ was twice born, thus leaving an example to that and succeeding generations. He was born in Bethlehem of Judea, and he was born again or born anew in Joseph's new tomb. Of all the twice born men, He was the first. Of all the risen dead, that died to sin, He was the first. The Resurrection of the "Inward Man." "God being rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:4, 5, 6.) This resurrection experienced by Paul, and his converts at Ephesus, is, as it appears to us, the only resurrection that fits in with the resurrection of the risen Christ. Jesus evidently had reference to this resurrection when He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you; The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." (John 5:25.) In the 28th and 29th verses of the same chapter, He simply emphasized and enlarged upon this great truth of the Gospel, and said, "Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." The Voice of the Son of God. All heard his voice, for the Gospel was preached in all creation under heaven in that generation, |